At least for me, it's not that I don't like it having a family. I'm perfectly fine with it. I just know if they survive, then that means there is going to be the most cliche story ever. "*gasp* you've enslaved all the androids as the main antagonist of the story! I WILL SLAY THEE!"

I don't know.

I assume that the child at least is alive, considering the fact that they designed it so that it would look like the parents, having it just end up as a dead baby after implementing a feature like that would just be weird. Not sure about the spouse though. If he/she is, I bet a lot of players will be pissed (I mean, how many "OMG why does my character have to be straight and married!!!11111!!!" threads have we had by now?)

WE GET IT, YOU DON'T LIKE PEOPLE SAYING THEY DON'T LIKE THE FAMILY

I swear, the same people who complained about the complainers three weeks ago won't stop talking about it.

Seriously, why do you care so much? Why click on a topic that's been discussed over and over again ("does the family survive?") where this opinion is bound to come up? Some of us are upset about a semi-fixed protagonist or that the dialogue options have been shaved down, or that skills are gone, that the character is voiced (with the bonus of crappy inaccurate paraphrases), etc...you like those things? That's fine. Put me on your ignore list like a grown up.

I've just fixed that now! It should have actually read six weeks, based on his size and the way he responds in-game. This is also compared to real world experience.

Interestingly (and hopefully not too controversial), six weeks before the day of the Great War would actually put Shaun's birthday as 9-11.

I would like them to be dead. A nice, simple dead. Little baby skeleton bones intermixed with big not-baby bones in the malfunctioning cryopod. But nay. I'm 96% sure they'll be used to elicit a reaction. Like a cheap emotional fulcrum wrapped in neon saying 'YOU SHOULD CARE YOU REALLY SHOULD.'

Perhaps that description is a little too extreme.

But I do understand why some people would not want to feel tied down to a backstory involving a family.

wife died protecting child (possibly gave it, dying and with no other option, to villain faction to protect from deathclaw...), child went supervillain

I hope they do. It is supposed to be pre-war life that you left behind, and you probably will find only some memories of them (holotapes or something). And if they don't, it would be kinda stupid. I never liked that family-centric plot in Fallout 3, because, frankly, I didn't care that much (but the game forced me to care) and I wasn't sure my character should care because his/her dad was a big [censored] to him, basically left his child to die.

Maybe you will Shaun as a ghoul and he still hates you because you made it to the Vault and he didn't and he wants to kill you for that

To me the main issue with Shaun being a ghoul is that the idea of making him look like the parents kind of goes out the window ... unless we only see him as human in flashbacks or videos ... and then when we finally meet him he's a ghoul.

My personal suspicion, since cryonic suspension is involved, is that a time-gapped release of people in 111 happens, either by accident, or design.

Whatever the story mechanic behind such, the spouse and child are compelled to leave 111, perhaps even leaving (an undated, or corrupted) message/video/holotape for you to find.

You find the message with no clue how long ago it may have been left, and strike out into the wasteland on the trail of your spouse and child.

Eventually, you find the corpse/skeleton of your spouse, and it's a corpse/skeleton so you still can't tell how old your spouse was when they died (still masking how much time has passed), but, there's clues to find your child.

Eventually you find your child, but, your child is all grown up.

Several possibilities are open here, some of which could be:

1. Your child is an advlt major faction leader character on a moral/karma path you have the choice to help or fight against.

2. Your child is an advlt major faction leader character on a moral/karma path you have the choice to convince to change, and then either help/save or fight against/kill.

3. Your child is an advlt major faction character, but not a leader, only a follower where 1, or 2 above then apply.

4. Your child is imprisoned or held captive by a major faction for crimes you may have to judge them on, and decide how to deal with.

5. Same as 4, but, child plays innocent, and when freed double-crosses/betrays you, and escapes and you have to decide how deal with it (quest continuation)

There's sundry more, of course, and many the variation, but the main gist will likely present a moral conflict over saving your child vs. some larger ideal.

If the child does survive it would be cool to see him/her like a teen and he could be your follower

If the child does survive it would be cool to see him/her like a teen and he could be your follower

wander the wastes with a teenager in my hair? naah, thanks

It's been 200 years. If the child miraculously survived I doubt you'd see him/her again.

Most likely some sort of descendant.

I think that it would be interesting to not see the child but the impact of the child on the wasteland (including their descendants).

But your argument that it has been 200 years so the child must be dead is not a good argument to make because the player survived 200 years, which means it's highly probable that the child survived that long by the same means.